


Snowed In

by stargirlchrina



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Baking, Cooking, Family Feels, M/M, Natasha teaches Pepper how to bake, Post-Avengers (2012), Snow, Steve and Tony make googoo eyes at each other, Thor cooks with lightning, Tony Stark Has A Heart, but pre everything else, preslash, the gang's all here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 02:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4547472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargirlchrina/pseuds/stargirlchrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers get a snow day. Nat and Pep bake, Thor and Clint cook, Bruce and Steve play some chess, and Tony has some feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snowed In

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another cutesy fic, this time with Avengers Family feels. Inspired by that snow storm NYC had back in January. So, you can say it happened then or we can fudge up the dates, whatever. 
> 
> Uh, Preslash for Steve and Tony, they're really cute in here. Oh, and Pepper's here too because there aren't enough stories where the girls hang out.
> 
> Thanks to B and J for for reading it over, and especially B for inspiring me to write. ::)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for clicking, hope you enjoy~  
> 

It was the middle of January, and as such the middle of snow season. And this time New York City got blanketed in so much of that white stuff schools actually closed. (And if you lived in the city you'd know just how hard it was to get them to close for anything.) A predicted three feet was to fall on day one, with more to come as the blizzard dumped its cargo onto the city. 

The Avengers were ready for news of baddies that would no doubt take advantage of the inclement weather to do whatever bad guys do, since it'd be pretty hard for police enforcement to trudge through the heavy snow that had already accumulated. But it had been ten hours since the storm had started and still there had been no word. Maybe the bad guys had decided to take a snow day too, and with all the fighting and saving that they'd been doing lately, the team was all too happy to take a break. 

Pepper had dropped by, one of her rare days off, and she and Natasha had spent most of their day going through baking cookbooks and trying their hand at various recipes. Natasha was relatively good at cooking and baking, and Pepper, well Pepper was not, and so Nat was teaching her. 

When Tony had walked in, they had been cracking eggs, and while Nat did some fancy thing where she threw the egg up into the air and cracked it on a spatula, Pepper could barely get them cracked the normal way. But she was getting there; already she was probably better than Tony was at this whole cooking thing. He remembered that time he had made her an omelet and wow that had been a nightmare. 

Clint and Thor had also made their way to the kitchen, complaining of hunger after a long and sweaty training session. After eating most of the foods they had in the kitchen, and most of what Pepper and Nat had baked, Thor declared a craving for Asgardian cooking. Clint had scoured the tower for cookbooks that Tony didn’t even know he’d had, and where had those baking books come from too? They were now trying their hand at making something from the cookbook, and by the way they were shouting and laughing and Thor kept saying words that had Clint saying “what” over and over again, Tony could just tell this meal was going to be bad, or weird, or _something_ ; Thor trying to modify earth recipes and ingredients to match Asgard cuisine, well it was going to be interesting to say the least. 

Bruce had also wandered out of the lab, and after a meditation session with Steve, the two were having a quiet game of chess on the kitchen table. And from the way Steve was smiling and Bruce was taking more time to make a move, Bruce was losing. Steve looked over to where Tony was watching them, and winked at him. He turned back to the game with a wider smile that had Bruce pausing again and possibly rethinking his whole strategy. 

And so that left Tony sitting at the kitchen table with a tablet in his hands, a pile of baked goods in front of him, and his teammates all around him. It was a nice feeling, being around such lively people, people he called friends, and well, people he might even call family and that was a strange concept. But yeah, he could totally see it. He found himself smiling as he swiped through some schematics on his tablet.

"What's with the creepy smile, Stark," Clint asked, having moved away from Thor and his crazy cooking antics, and wow, cooking with lightning? Not a good idea. 

Tony shrugged.

"It's a secret," he said chuckling and that had everyone pausing to look at him. He looked around and smiled wide, "what? Don't give me that look, it's not anything bad." 

They stared harder.

"Or dangerous, crazy, etc, etc., look, can't a guy smile once in a while? Is that a crime?"

“When it's you, maybe.”

“Ouch, Clint, that hurts. Go back to your cooking or whatever."

"Tony," Pepper said in that small voice of hers and Tony saw that she was covered in flour and frosting and egg stuff, and that had been a really expensive dress; didn't they have aprons around here? Pep was gonna get mad when she realized.

"Pepper, really, it's fine. It's all fine people, but it's not gonna be fine if you keep looking at me like that. And you got a little something down your front, hon." Tony took vindictive pleasure as Pepper looked down and saw just how much of a mess she had made. 

"Alright, Stark let's have it. What evil thing were you planning?" That was Steve, and Tony sighed. He had been in a good mood and now, well it was all going down the drain. He turned to Steve to tell him to knock it off, but stopped when he saw Steve was smiling with a strange, mischievous twinkle in his eyes and, huh. Tony smiled back. Steve's smile got even wider.

"Let me guess, let me guess," and Steve leaned back, tapped at his lips with his fingers as he thought. Tony looked at the game and saw that it was Bruce's turn and that he was losing, thank goodness Steve was a saint. 

"Snowball fights on the roof, building snowmen and then blasting them with repulsors, ohh wait, wait..."

And Tony laughed, that was not at all what he had been thinking. His friends shuffled around behind him. He turned and saw their faces lit up with childish glee.

"Oh, got it, got it," Steve paused for dramatic effect, then, "you're gonna wait until everyone's asleep and then with your army of suits, dump snow on all of us. Am I right? Did I get it?" Steve took a dismissive move on the board and then turned back to Tony, leaning forward on the kitchen table with a wide grin. 

Pepper gasped, "Tony, no."

"You'd be dead Stark, _dead_."

"A cold bath is a customary ritual to signal the beginning of the cold season."

"Honestly, I don't think I would even feel it at this point."

"Yeah, not sure the other guy would like that."

"Alright, alright, calm down people, and you, Captain, giving me ideas. No, that wasn't at all what I was thinking, but good try." 

Steve shrugged.

"I was just," and he swallowed thickly. God, was he really going to say it, _out loud_? What if everyone thought he was weird or didn't share the sentiment? 

_Well, here goes nothing._

"I was thinking about how nice it was to have the whole team, uh, together, in one place, just you know, doing nothing," he paused and fiddled with his tablet a bit. 

"It's nice and, well, a little warm and all, and maybe I was thinking that this was what it felt like to have a family," and he said that last part real quick just in case and then didn't look up, and everyone was quiet and _bad move Stark!_

He heard Pepper sigh breathily and looked up. Her eyes were misty, and she had on a soft smile. She crossed the room and draped herself across his back, giving him a hug. And great, now his shirt was going to get dirty, not that he really cared; Pepper was a warm and solid pressure against his back and it felt nice. He had missed this. 

"That's a very nice thought, Tony, and of course we're family." 

The others, however, were quiet, either they didn’t share his thoughts or they were all thinking on it. Tony really hoped the latter. He looked around from under Pepper’s embrace: Natasha had shrunk into herself a bit, Clint had his arms crossed and his brows furrowed, Bruce had an eyebrow raised and was scratching his neck, Steve had a sad smile on his face, and Thor was beaming as if he'd already known and had just been waiting for the others to catch on and oh no! 

He was looking at Tony with determined eyes and there was no way to escape and in the next second both he and Pepper were enveloped in strong demigod ( _was he a demigod? Or a god_ god _??? Had they established what Thor was??_ ) arms and lifted up off the floor in one of the tightest hugs he'd ever gotten.

"And I too consider you family, Anthony, and all of you as well. It is nice to be so far from home and feel as if you have never left at all."

"Alright, that's great but- ohh I'm too old for this! You could let us down now."

Pepper, however, looked to be enjoying being held tightly in the blond's arms, as was evident by her little pout as he released them back to the ground. 

"Family sounds good," Bruce said from his seat, and Bruce had already been a good friend and to hear that had Tony feeling nice and warm. Bruce smiled and then turned back to the game, 

"Now if only family could help me win." He looked at Tony sideways and Tony laughed.

"I'm not helping you cheat."

"What, isn't that what brothers do? Help a brother out." That had them all laughing, even Natasha let out a chuckle. She was looking less reserved than she had when Tony had made his declaration, like she had accepted something that she'd been denying. 

Clint, well Clint shuffled up from his sprawl against the counter and walked up behind Bruce, rubbing his hands together. 

"No guarantee that we're going to win, bro." 

Bruce laughed.

"I was kind of hoping the older brother, you know the _genius_ , might be the one to help."

Clint reared back, hands up, "oh, oh I see how it is. Playing favorites now, bro, that ain't cool. See if I give you extra servings of whatever it is that Thor and I have made. And Thor, bro, is it supposed to be glowing??" Clint quickly crossed the kitchen with Thor to address the alarming glow of their "food".

With a pat on his head, Pepper went back to baking with Natasha. 

Tony fiddled with his phone, still feeling a bit awkward after his declaration. 

His phone buzzed, it was a message from Natasha.

New Message from Natasha:  
[gettin sappy in ur old age, old man (old man emoji) (weird face emoji) (old man emoji)]

Sometimes Tony forgot just how informal Natasha texted. He looked up and smiled at the woman, who rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue and then went back to guiding Pepper on whatever it was they were making.

Tony typed back, [just admit you like me nat]

Immediately, [no].

[I'm telling pepper]

He heard Natasha laugh, and looked up to smile at her. 

[Pepper agrees with me]

“Pepper!” He shouted at her, “rude.”

Pepper shrugged, “sorry Tony.”

He texted, [you guys are mean and I'm not talking to you anymore]

[(Tongue out emoji)]

He was so involved in his text battle that he startled a bit when Bruce started laughing next to him.

“That is not fair,” Bruce said.

"What's not fair?" Tony asked.

"That move he just did." 

They both looked up. Steve just shrugged with a little smile.

“This might take a while,” Bruce said and he stared at the board for a good three minutes before standing up.

“Forfeiting already?” Tony asked him with a smirk.

Bruce slapped his hand away from the board, “no, just a bathroom break. Make sure he doesn’t move any of the pieces,” he told Steve. Steve gave him a salute.

With Bruce gone, Tony moved his chair closer to the board, leaning in to inspect it. Steve leaned in too, carefully watching Tony as he picked up a few pieces and moved them around. Steve just smiled, and moved them right on back. Tony looked up with a cheeky grin, and did it again. 

“C’mon, Tony,” he said and put them back with a pointed look.

Tony lifted his hands in surrender. They got quiet, waiting for Bruce to return. Steve still hadn't said anything after Tony's little declaration. Even Nat had given Tony something. And Tony really, _really_ needed to know what the other man thought. 

“So, uhm,” Steve began, and then stopped, running a hand through his hair.

Steve cleared his throat.

“What you said, I just,” Steve nodded, licking his lips. “And,” he stopped, rubbed at the back of his neck while his ears reddened.

Tony chuckled, “you gonna speak in full sentences, Steve? Or am I gonna have to invent a mind reading machine?”

“Could you do that?” 

Tony paused with a chess piece in his hand. Steve stretched out his hand for it and Tony placed the piece on it. He kept a good grip on it, though, and when Steve tugged for it, they had a mini tug-o-war. With a quirk of his lips, Tony let go. Steve rolled his eyes and put it back on the board. 

Tony leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. 

“Yeah, probably,” he said finally. And it was true, he probably could invent a mind reading device thing, or at least get close to it. He kind of wanted to make one now, if only to see what Steve thought about the whole family thing. Tony wouldn't have to wait too long though. 

Steve nodded, took a deep breath, then: “Thank you.”

Tony raised an eyebrow, “For the mind reading thing?” 

Steve shook his head, “No, not that.”

“Then for what?” Tony asked, and he didn't know why he was speaking so low, maybe it was because Steve had been speaking so softly too? He leaned in, focusing completely on Steve; _something was happening_. It had been relatively quiet before, in their little space at the end of the table, the team a comfortable background noise, but right now Tony couldn’t hear anything but the sound of Steve’s voice, not Clint’s loud shouts, or Thor’s raucous laughter, nor Pepper’s quiet curses as she messed up, Natasha’s soft voice as she told Pep what to do.

Steve smiled shyly, "for putting it into words, this... feeling that I've had for a while."

"Oh," Tony swallowed. "You're... welcome?"

Steve nodded, "yeah. It's been, uh hard, to say the least. Leaving everything and everyone behind.”

_That was an understatement._

“And I uh," Steve cleared his throat, "and I uh never thought I'd ever feel like this again.” He stopped and looked up at Tony, with a small, little smile on his face. 

“For a while, I’d been feeling this, _thing_ , and I wasn’t sure what it was. Well, I’d felt it before, with-” he paused, and shook his head. 

Tony had stopped breathing.

“And then you invited all of us here, gave us a house.”

“Well, I didn’t exactly give it to you guys-”

“No, you’re right, you _forcibly_ gave it to us. How many phone calls did you send out, Tony? Asking us to move in?”

“Only like, one.”

Steve raised both brows, “Tony, I got at least three.”

Tony shook his head, “that can’t be right.”

“You can look at my phone record all you like,” he pulled out his phone and scrolled down his call history. He showed it to Tony.

There was Tony’s name, six times in a row; he’d been the first to call Steve apparently. Tony scrolled all the way up. He was also the one who called the most frequently, huh.

“That’s been doctored, obviously,” he said, and gave back the phone.

Steve laughed, “whatever you say Tony.

“So,” Steve continued, “thank you, for everything. I don’t think we’d be this close if not for you. You got us together, gave us a house,” and a little quieter, “gave me a home”

He looked straight at Tony when he finished, and how come Tony had never realized how blue Steve's eyes were or how freaking young the guy was? 

Tony swallowed, how was he supposed to follow on that?

"It's no problem, Steve," he said, and that was completely inadequate for what he was feeling but it would do for now.

Steve smiled, and ducked his head. Tony looked away, had it always been this hot in the room?

Bruce came back with impeccable timing, “what I’d miss,” he asked, taking his seat.

 _A lot_ , Tony didn’t say.

With their conversation over, and Bruce back, everything returned with a rush of noise and a really bad smell; what the heck was that? He turned around and Pepper was frantically shouting and Natasha was bent double laughing the hardest he'd ever seen her. Clint was laughing too, while Thor looked mildly concerned. _What the hell had happened?_

Clint saw him and he paused enough in his laughter to tell him, "Pep, oh god, Pep tried using the- the mixer but then," and he fell into a fit of giggles, "but then it just exploded and caught fire!"

Tony stood alarmed, that wasn't funny.

"It's alright Tony!" Pepper shouted and she sounded exasperated but also like she was having a grand old time, so that was good.

"Are you sure, Pep?" He asked worried, and saw that Steve had also stood up.

"Yeah, it's fine. I think we got some water or something inside it. It's kind of old too, but we got it under control. Trust me."

"Yeah, Stark, stop being such a worry wart. You're gonna get more wrinkles than you already have."

"Pepper, Natasha is being very mean to me. Tell her something."

Natasha smiled when Pepper just shrugged and said, "have you been using those lotions I sent you?"

"Are you trying to tell me something Pepper?"

"She's calling you old, old man."

"Steve, tell them something."

"Something," Steve said, having sat back down and continued his game.

They all snickered, and Steve gave him a grin.

"You're all rude," and he sat down in a huff.

"Aww, Tony, you know I don't mean it. You're look very distinguished for your age," Pepper said, not really paying attention as she wiped herself down with a towel Natasha had gotten for her; it had all the Avengers on it. She made sure Iron Man got particularly dirty; Nat snickered and helped clean up.

"Nope, I'm gonna tell Rhodey you were mean to me," he grinned at Pepper to show that all was okay, and she turned back to her baking with a roll of her eyes and a muttered "drama queen." She almost threw the dirty towel at him, if only to hear him squeak but she decided to play nice. Nat however, had that glint in her eye. Pepper distracted her with a question though.

Tony hadn't planned on texting Rhodey, but now that he'd said it, it sounded like a good idea. He pulled out his phone and was on his way of sending him a long, _long_ text full of misspells and too many emoji when Bruce interrupted his thoughts by cursing loudly next to him.

"How did you do that?" Bruce shouted.

Tony rolled his eyes, Bruce had lost. What a sore loser. He included that in his text too.

Steve shrugged, "military strategist, Bruce. I told you it wasn't a good idea. When you've basically got nothing to do as a kid you pick up a few things; board games and books were my thing." He smiled at Bruce, and Bruce reluctantly smiled back.

"Bruce doesn't like losing. Whenever he challenges me I have to make sure he'll win, or else face a hulk situation," Tony told Steve as his phone chimed. It was Rhodey. 

Steve paled a bit, "I hadn't even thought about that."

Tony nodded and read the message. Rhodey was a sap, used shorthand just like Nat, but with less emoji and more smiley face icons. He hadn't taken his side. Jerk. 

Turning back to their conversation, Bruce was now comforting Steve with a wave of his hand and, "it's fine, a little losing now and then is good, and what do you mean you've been losing on purpose?" He directed that last bit at Tony. 

"Well, for some of them...."

Bruce lifted an eyebrow, "for all of them you mean. You're a pretty bad chess player." 

"No I'm not. You were _just_ asking for my help!"

"Yes you are, and that's because alone, you're not that great, but together we might have had something. Admit it Tony."

“No-"

"Alright kids, calm down, let's not fight now."

"Oh shut it grandpa, I am totally a good chess player and I will prove it. Now, move over Bruce, I'm gonna bring this guy down."

Bruce laughed as Steve replaced the pieces.

"Have fun losing, Tony."

"Ten bucks and five of whatever the girls are making says I win."

Bruce took his hand, "you're on."

Five minutes later and Tony had lost. Steve had shown no mercy, and how had Bruce lasted as long as he had?

Steve smiled shyly and Bruce did a little I-told-you-so dance. 

"You jerk. You could've let me win."

Steve shrugged, "and let your ego get even more inflated, I don't think so."

Tony gasped, and Steve looked a bit contrite and then, "my ego is not over inflated thank you very much."

"Yes it is," came the chorus around the room, and Steve relaxed and smiled.

"Rude, the whole lot of you. Why do I let you live in my house? I don't even like you guys."

"Yeah you do," Steve said from across him, "you even called us family."

Tony paused for a second, not sure why his breath had left him and then he shook his head, "yeah well, horrible mistake on my part."

"C'mon Tony, admit it, you like us."

And there was that breath catching again and a little voice saying something that he was _not_ going to repeat, although as Steve's cheeks took on a slightly pink hue maybe he should've let himself think those thoughts.

"Yeah, alright I like you guys."

Clint gagged behind him, "gross Stark."

"Shut it Katniss."

"You know, Katniss is a badass archer, with mad skills and all the boys so I don't take that as a diss."

Tony sighed. "It wasn't meant as a diss, you dofus."

"Hey, watch it or no food tonight."

"Oh no, whatever shall I do?" Tony scoffed. 

"Starve, starve is the right answer."

"Psh, I got family now Barton, they wouldn't let me starve, right?"

"Right," Steve said just as Pepper sighed.

"He's just saying that ’cause he likes you likes you," Clint said just at the same time Tony said, "Pepper, what was up with that sigh?" 

And then they all paused, as Steve flushed a bit pink and glared at Clint. 

Pepper ignored it all as she turned and pointed a dirty spatula at Tony, "all I'm saying is, why should I take responsibility for not letting you starve when you won't even do it yourself."

"Oww, Pep that hurts. And I just forget, sometimes...."

"Sometimes?"

"You hush Bruce, ’kay? Also, I don't want to eat your junk food anyway, Clint."

"Anthony, you will not try my cuisine?"

Tony grimaced and then sighed, "alright Thor I'll have some of your food." ’Cause really how could he say no to that face?

And then they all turned back to whatever they were doing and it wasn't exactly awkward but it was just a bit, what with Clint's comment hanging about. But then Bruce pulled out a deck of cards and they lost themselves in another game.

Finally, it was time to eat, with the thing Clint and Thor had made, that was _still_ glowing, and Pepper and Nat's myriad of baking goods, but especially the cookies/cupcakes things they had made most recently. It was all surprisingly good, and Tony had to give up five of the cookie-cupcakes to Bruce, but they'd made so much it barely even dented the large pile. And the glowing dish of meats and vegetables was actually pretty good, even though it left their lips and tongues glowing.

They all laughed at each other and tried to see whose tongue glowed the brightest. Pepper won that contest somehow. And when it was time for cleaning up, they just packed the rest of the food away and left the dishes in the sink; they were all too full and lazy to do any actual work. 

Grabbing some treats and drinks, they made their way to the living room, where they lifted the curtains to watch as the snow fell onto the city. Already there was about three feet of it on the ledge. New York looked amazing under the heavy blanket of snow, beautiful and peaceful.

Tony sat himself on the big couch, with Steve on one side and Pepper on his other. Nat and Clint had curled up on a loveseat. Thor took to sitting on the bean chair, and Bruce sat next to Pepper. It got a bit cramped on the couch, what with four grown adults sitting on it, and if Tony pushed himself a little too close to Steve well the other man didn't mind. He gave him a shy, little smile that Tony found himself mimicking. 

Tomorrow they'd have a wicked snowball fight and maybe they would build snowmen and find creative and explosive ways to completely destroy them, and maybe they'd get a call in or maybe they wouldn't. 

But for right now they settled in for a nice quiet night of watching the snow, enjoying each others company, and reveling in the warmth of having a place to call home and people to call family.

The end.

**Author's Note:**

> ~As always, thank for reading~
> 
>   
> 
> 
> ♥


End file.
